Missing Memories
by Unformal Sorrelle
Summary: Now it has to be said that Naminé hadn't had her powers long. With something as complex as memory, how could she have been expected to have mastered them? Or KH:CoM where Sora's not the one trying to save Naminé.


Missing Memories

_A Probable Twoshot_

Crackfic

* * *

Castle Oblivion- a pristine White Castle of confusion. Every step forward erased two steps back. Sora knew he had to keep going, he had to find Riku, but the further he went through the castle the more he felt something was wrong.

On the islands, one of the main ways to make a living was the sea. Fisherman would row out into the water and set traps to catch crabs. They were clever contraptions, carefully crafted so that the crabs could crawl in but they couldn't crawl out. Sora wasn't one to give up so he didn't want to say anything but something in his heart was screaming at him he was just as caught as any unlucky crab.

"Do you think we should keep going?" Sora asked, card in hand and hesitating at the next door. He didn't look back at his friends, not wanting to see the judgement either way.

"I don't know." Donald said hesitantly.

"Well I do." Goofy's voice held his usual confidence.

"Oh really?" Donald scoffed. Sora turned around to see him crossing his wings with his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah." Goofy nodded, "We hafta rescue Naminé!"

"Naminé? Who's Naminé?" Sora looked at Donald but the duck was just as lost as he was.

"I just remembered her a'hyuck! I s'pose I must have forgot all about her." Goofy shook his head.

"I don't believe it." Donald tapped his foot.

"Me neither but at least I remember her now! Gee, I sure hope there aren't any other friends I've forgotten." Goofy looked positively aghast. "Donald have I ever forgotten you?"

"No, you haven't, you big palooka! And you don't know any Naminé."

"I don't?"

"No!"

Sora put his hand up to his face in a thinker's pose. He was more than a little lost.

"How can you be sure Goofy doesn't have a friend name Naminé?"

"I've known Goofy for a long time, Sora. There's no way for him to have some friend I've never heard of. It's just not possible." He squawked and then gestured around. "This place is doing something fishy."

"Hmm…" Sora didn't want to have to pick between his friends. "Maybe Goofy met her when you weren't around? Where did you last see Naminé, Goofy?"

"Hyuck, well back on my island of course!"

"Wak!"

…

"What. Is. This?" Marluxia said slowly as he watched his little hero's group in the crystal ball. Naminé flinched and started coloring in Sora's crayon hair with enough pressure to dent the paper. She refused to look at him.

"It… it seems like my aim was a little off." She wished her voice could stop shaking. Marluxia himself banged his head on the crystal in front of him.

"Fix it. I have little use for the king's lackey."

"I'm sorry. I had no idea that people next to Sora could absorb the memory."

"Don't make that mistake again." He stepped closer to her. "After all, you wouldn't like the consequences."

"Mhmm." She squeaked and nodded as she continued to draw with trembling fingers.

…

"You don't have an island!" Donald stamped his foot. Goofy looked at him, puzzled, as he scratched his head.

"That's funny, because I definitely do have an island. Otherwise, where did I meet my good friend Naminé?"

"Goofy," Sora said gently, "_I_ come from an island."

"Oh gee, what a coincidence."

Donald gestured to Sora to come closer and they huddled together with their backs to Goofy. Sora had to bend down a bit to get on the duck's level.

"There's something really screwy happening here." Donald whispered conspiratorially.

"You're telling me!" Sora shook his head. "Are you sure that he doesn't know a Naminé? After all that cloak guy said we'd remember what's important. Could she be someone you both forgot?"

"No!" Donald hissed.

"Uh…" Goofy had poked his head in between their huddle from above at some point. Startled, Sora ended up crashing to the floor as Donald made startled Donald noises. "Whatcha talkin' about?"

"How fishy this castle is!"

Goofy took an exaggerated sniff. "Really? I don't smell anything."

"Not like that." Donald raged and then stomped towards Goofy and pointed. "This castle is doing something to you."

"Yeah, it's helping me remember."

Sora remained stunned on the ground. He knew he had to get back to his feet at some point but as he watched his friends argue he grew increasingly confused. Donald kept mentioning things about the two's past- people and events that Sora had no idea how to respond to. It suddenly struck him about how much the two had been through together, and how little he really knew about it. Donald wasn't one to talk about himself for the most part and Goofy's rambling stories tended to be a little on the unbelievable side.

Donald looked ready to explode.

"Hey, why don't we take a break?" Sora interrupted before the duck tried to fire off some half forgotten spell. "We know we're forgetting things, right? What if we," Sora paused and looked around for inspiration. He caught a glimpse of Jiminy out of the corner of his eye, perched on his hood. Ah-hah! "We can look at Jiminy's journal and make sure we're still on track."

"Oh, what a good idea, Sora." Jiminy smiled and hopped down to the castle floor. "Since I've been documenting everything-"

"Hah," Donald grumbled. "Then you've already forgotten what happened to your last journal."

Jiminy crossed his tiny arms, that was obviously a sore point. "Well I've been checking this one regularly and nothing's gone missing yet."

"Oh really?" Donald bent down to get more on the cricket's level. "How would you know?"

"Well, I never!" Jiminy hopped back up to Sora's shoulder, obviously stung.

"That wasn't that nice." Goofy put his hand gently on Donald's back.

"So?" He said but his expression softened to something vaguely apologetic. "We should just leave this place. The king isn't gonna be in a dump like this."

Jiminy suddenly shook his head. "But we can't leave yet."

"Why not?" Sora asked, mostly out of curiosity. Usually Jiminy liked to stay out of decision making. The cricket's resolute tone was unexpected.

"Because Sora," Jiminy pulled out something out of his pocket. For a split second it looked like the journal but then reality came in and he held a yellow star-shaped charm. "I have to return Naminé's lucky charm to her. I made her a promise I'd always protect her!"

Silence followed. Sora had no idea what to say.

"You too? Hyuck."

…

Naminé remembered that Sora used to have a nervous habit of biting his nails. Every time he got worries his nails would suddenly get as short as could be. He only stopped after Riku's teasing finally got to him and Sora figured he was getting a little old for it. Naminé wasn't really even a month old. She wondered if she started biting her nails if she'd feel any better.

She looked from Marluxia's scary face to her rather unappetizing nails. No, she didn't see how it'd help.

"I don't take being mocked well, little girl."

"I don't know what happened. I thought for sure I'd hit Sora this time but then his friend wanted to leave so I had to do something quick and I panicked."

"You… panicked?" Marluxia's face curled up in false mirth. "Are you even capable of that?"

"Um."

"What a little actress."

"I-"

"Get your hero up here. No more of these mistakes. Otherwise, maybe Larxene-"

She took a deep breath. What was she supposed to do? If only Marluxia didn't remember that mistake.

If only…

She looked into him appraisingly, at the chain of memories he kept. It was a snangled, snarled mess completely at odds with his neat appearance. Old links, so aged they were metaphorically coated in rust, dragged on the bottom of his memory completely unattached to his current consciousness. At some point, someone had made an absolute mess of him. There was a reason she'd hesitated to even imagine changing him or Larxene. Both of them had such complex chains she didn't know what would happen if she even poked them.

However, if she just removed the newest link… Surely that'd be simple enough. Then she could fix Sora and his friends without Marluxia even realizing there had been a problem.

Naminé narrowed her eyes and tore her paper.

…

"Ok, let me get this straight." Sora put his head in his hands and wished he could just take a nap. "Both of you were friends with a girl named Naminé."

"Yup!"

"Well, I don't know about Goofy, but I sure was."

"And you knew her on Destiny Islands."

"Uh huh!"

"That's what I told you, Sora."

"She gave you a good luck charm and you promised to protect her."

"You got it!"

"I have the real charm, I'm sure Goofy's just confused."

"Hyuck, well I do get awful confuzzled. But Jiminy, I'm pretty sure I could never get something about Naminé wrong."

Sora gestured wildly at Donald for some help. Donald rolled his eyes.

"What a bunch of baloney. What about Disney Castle? Pinocchio?"

"We have to save Naminé." The two said in chorus.

"Wow that was creepy." Sora winced. The last time he'd heard overlapping voices like that was when Riku was possessed. Sure, with Goofy's distinctive voice and Jiminy's precise pronunciation it was definitely different but still.

Donald made unintelligible sounds of his frustration. Sora wished he could express his confusion so succinctly. This was getting really weird and he didn't like it. Something was happening to his friends and he didn't know how to fix it.

"C'mon Sora, we need to go to the next floor." Jiminy pointed at the door. The corresponding card suddenly felt heavy in Sora's hand.

"Yeah Sora!" Goofy nodded. "Let's go."

Sora exchanged a glance with Donald and then nodded. They were just wasting time here.

"Ok, we do have to find Riku and the King. We can't give up on them now."

"And Naminé! You can't forget her." Goofy cut in brightly.

"Sure. Any friends of yours are friends of mine." Sora scratched his head nervously as he presented the card to the door. "I can't keep Kairi waiting."

The last thing Sora heard before he entered the door was a "Wak! Who's Kairi?" and he was secretly glad that cards couldn't talk.

…

Everything was fine.

Perfectly fine.

Sure, Marluxia's hair was mussed because he kept banging his head on the viewing crystal, turning to threaten Naminé, and then forgetting about five minutes of his life only to do it again. And again. And again. But it was ok. Naminé was handling it.

Really it was all Marluxia's own fault that Sora's memory wasn't adjusted properly. If he hadn't stressed her out so much and been such a distraction this all would have been a lot easier.

And then Larxene had to show up. And Vexen with his new Riku Replica. And Axel. This was getting ridiculous.

Naminé was about ready to pull out her own hair.

She quickly overlayed a memory on Marluxia so he thought the last hour had just been slow with Sora going through the current memory world and his friends decidedly not declaring her name. Larxene mentioned his hair situation and in a panic Naminé just replaced Larxene's mental picture of Marluxia to be that messy and rumpled. She was almost scared she'd messed up when the Nobody froze, but then Larxene ran a hand through her own hair and ruffled it a bit in some sort of solidarity. Ok. Naminé wasn't going to ask.

"Aren't I ever gonna get to play with Sora?" Larxene whined.

"Soon." Marluxia couldn't remember the excuses he'd given her before. She should have fought Sora about a floor ago but Naminé really, really couldn't have Larxene anywhere near Goofy and friends. Therefore she'd kept giving Marluxia reasons to send Larxene anywhere else.

"Aw." She pouted and then sauntered over to Vexen. "What are you doing up here, Vexy-wexy?"

The scientist looked incredibly affronted but Axel stepped up. "Oh yes, it's not often we see you topside."

Vexen looked nervously at Marluxia who stared back impassively. Vexen luckily was too concerned with his experiment to even notice on the oddities of his colleagues' hair. That was a relief.

"I have a proposition..."

She tried to sit back during most of their meeting but her nerves kept her hyper aware of every word. What if Marluxia discovered what she'd done? Larxene? Could she really reset this entire room? And even if she did, when would she actually find the time to alter Sora and fix his friends?

Naminé blinked and suddenly Larxene was saying she needed to completely overwrite the Riku replica's heart with a copy of Riku. The experiment was pleading. He didn't want to be erased.

"That's going to take time." Naminé squeaked as her worst tormentor stood over her.

"Vexen has all the data you need."

"Um, well-" Naminé hestated. There really wasn't anything she could say. The replica looked back at her utterly terrified. She really didn't want to do this but she had no choice.

She looked at Riku's memories with her power. They were interesting, a different flavor than Sora's even in the memories they shared. He had a different kind of confidence and a regret that permeated through even once happy memories.

"Don't make him exactly like the little brat." Larxene waved her finger. "I still want control over him. He's gonna need all Sora's memories of you. After all, we don't want them reminiscing and noticing you don't actually matter to anyone." She laughed and Naminé hunched further down over her drawing.

"Ok." She was pretty sure she had a chain of memories that would work. She couldn't make eye contact with the replica, too guilty. "I'm ready." She sent the memories over and had them choke out the original heart. "I'm sorry."

"Naminé!" Vexen called, but Larxene interrupted whatever he was trying to say.

"Is it done yet, little witch? I'm getting bored"

Naminé nodded and then noticed the theoretically new Riku give her an eyebrow raise. But then his face straightened to a loose scowl and he crossed his arms.

"What's going on?"

"Aw, Marluxia are we really sending Vexen's little _toy _to play with Sora before me?"

"Why don't you go see Sora now? He should be about to the fourth floor." He was actually past the fifth floor by now. "I think Riku here needs a bit of a primer."

Vexen growled.

"Well then," Larxene opened a corridor of darkness and waved at everyone, entirely too peppy, "don't have too much fun without me."

As soon as she left Marluxia turned to the others and shrugged. "I don't really care what you do with Riku here as long as I get what I want. But I expect progress, Vexen. Do not disappoint me." He turned to the replica and his smile was so cold it could make a heartless being want to cry. "Remember to do what we say if you want the best for Naminé. Going against us means you're putting her in danger. Now, you wouldn't want to do that, would you? Find Sora and teach him a lesson. After all, he forgot all about your precious Naminé."

"Understood." Vexen's eyes narrowed.

Maluxia summoned a dark corridor, much to Naminé's dismay, and disappeared. That wasn't good.

Now she was left with Axel, who watched Vexen and the replica with interest.

"What do you want?" Vexen asked Axel.

"Oh, you know, same as always." He smirked. "A little fun. A little excitement."

"I don't trust you."

"Hmph. That's not really nice. After all, all I do is for the Organization. Trust me when I say I'm nothing if not loyal." Axel himself now opened a dark corridor and Naminé couldn't say she'd miss him. "See ya."

Vexen stepped closer to Naminé and very solemnly vowed, "I promise I will save you."

She blinked.

The replica clearly his throat. Vexen turned around.

"Who are you? A fake?" He accused his own creation.

The replica's stone face all at once lit up like it was his birthday. Which, technically speaking, it could have been. Naminé had no idea how old the copy was. He turned to her.

"Thank you." He sounded reluctant, like he was altogether too cool to lower himself to expressing gratitude. Then he winced and regained his troubled look. "But what am I going to do now?"

"Get away from Naminé, you phony!"

"Phony? Ha. You're one to talk." The replica laughed hollowly. He stepped closer to Naminé, much to Vexen's disapproval. "I refuse to be erased and made into a weakling. But… Where do I go?"

"If you're caught…" Naminé had finally understood what had happened, "if you're caught I can't guarantee I can save you again."

"Mmm." He looked hesitant as he summoned his own dark corridor. "Whatever. This doesn't mean I owe you anything."

"Of course," Naminé nodded as if she'd done any of this on purpose. What the replica didn't know wouldn't hurt him. He waved at her and disappeared into the darkness.

Only one other person remained, but not for too much longer.

…

Sora progressed through the castle, taking his time in the memory worlds. He felt terrible but he was starting to dread getting to a new floor. Everything was Naminé this and Naminé that. His friends had gotten awfully snippy with each other, always fighting over which one had the real memory of her. In short, this castle was nothing but a headache.

This time though, the white corridor had a man standing in the middle of it. He was tall and wore a dark cloak. Sora thought he looked a little familiar. Oh yeah, he was pretty sure he'd seen this cloaked guy earlier. Maybe. Probably not. Why did everyone have to wear the same thing? Was it like a uniform or something?

"What are you doing here?" Sora asked rudely, already getting ready to summon his keyblade.

"Not happy to see me?" The man asked. He had blond hair and acid green eyes that seemed to bulge whenever he showed emotion. "Lemme know if I'm getting in the way- ya know, of something more important."

Sora wondered if there was something he wasn't getting. "So, you'll step aside and let me get to the door?"

"Oh wow. It looks like you've forgotten all about me."

"So we have met?" Sora scratched his head. Maybe this was the guy at the beginning of the castle? No, that didn't see right. "It's not like we spent a lot of time together or anything."

"Hmph." The man in the coat looked a little annoyed, if not deeply wounded. "Now it's only… Naminé that you're looking for."

"Actually-" Sora took a breath and that was enough time for him to get plowed over by his friends.

"Naminé!" Goofy crowed.

"Where is she?" Donald waved his staff. Even Jiminy was out of the hood now, threatening the man for Naminé's safety. The man seemed somewhat taken aback.

"You don't care about me, Sora." He stated clearly, trying to ignore the pile of Disney residents. "Just like you never cared about her feelings."

"Who's? Naminé's?" Sora shook his head. "Why would I?" He felt the glaring eyes of his friends on him and backpedaled. "Uh, I mean-"

"Even worse than I thought." The blond man looked a little shell-shocked. "You know, just cuz you wanna see Naminé doesn't mean it goes both ways. Tell ya the truth, Naminé doesn't even want to look at your face."

Sora shrugged and tried not to be bothered. At this point he was really doubting Naminé was going to turn out to be his friends' actual friend but this was kinda rude. The guy was a real weirdo, wasn't he?

"Ok."

"Why not?" Goofy asked, "I think she'd get along real well with him."

Vexen pointed dramatically at Sora. "Ask your memories why Naminé really disappeared from the islands."

"Wak! What are you talking about?"

"She was never on the islands!" Sora suddenly exploded. "At least not on my islands. I don't know if there's like some Disney islands or not but I know everyone on Destiny Islands and Naminé was never there." He stomped past the man, heading to the next door. "I am here for Riku. Riku and the king. If you guys want to find this Naminé then go ahead but leave me out of it!" Yelling like that left him a little out of breath and as he caught up on oxygen he wondered if he really should have lost his temper like that. He didn't have long to consider an apology before the man cut in.

"But Sora, I'm Riku. Don't you remember ya best friend?"

Sora looked the man who was definitely not Riku up and down and then turned back around.

"I knew it, you never cared about me. Or Naminé."

Sora withdrew another card and showed it to the door.

"You're right." He said.

"How can you say that about Naminé?" Donald yelled and stamped his little webby feet.

Sora sighed and looked back at his friends pleadingly. Donald was turning red, Goofy looked disappointed, and Jiminy shook his head. Come on guys.

"I don't know Naminé and honestly you're all starting to scare me. I don't think you know her either."

"Of course I know Naminé." Jiminy argued, "we were always together on the i-"

"On the islands, yes, I know." Sora huffed. His fists clenched. "But you're being tricked! I don't know how but somehow you're all remembered someone who doesn't exist. Naminé isn't your friend!"

Goofy's eyes narrowed. "If that's what you really think about Naminé then why don't you just go."

"Huh?" Sora's breath caught. His friends glared daggers at him.

"Get outta here." Donald squawked and shook his staff. "You can't talk about Naminé like that."

"But can't you see? She's not real."

"Young man, if you're not going to help us rescue Naminé then I don't have time for you." Jiminy crossed his stick thin arms.

That was it. Sora took a deep breath and opened the door. He wasn't putting up with this.

"I'm gonna find out what's going on and stop it. I know my real friends aren't like this." He paused for a second before going through the door in front of him. "And I'll find Riku and the King too!"

The door shut behind him with a slam and very faintly, Sora heard a muffled "but I'm Riku!"

…

Marluxia had returned and Naminé erased more chainlinks just to be safe. Unfortunately while she was busy with that it seemed like Sora had run-off somewhere. That wasn't ideal.

"Vexen, what are you doing? I didn't figure you of all people to be a traitor." Marluxia muttered as he watched the crystal. "Did he forget how to use his shield as well as his senses?"

"Ha." Naminé peeked and flinched when she noticed that he was trying to use his shield like Riku used his sword. The combination wasn't working well and even without the keyblade bearer and memories how to properly fight, Sora's friends clearly had the edge.

"Where'd your little hero go?"

"He's there." Naminé lied.

"Where?" Marluxia leaned in, tapping the crystal and it's utter lack of a spikey haired boy.

"Right there." She pointed to Goofy and overlaid his face with Marluxia's memory of Sora's appearance. It was a little messy, he probably now remembered Sora as a conglomerate of the two, but if Naminé kept working at it she'd be able to clean it up.

No, what was she doing? She needed to fix her mistake already, not dig herself deeper. But what else could she do?

"He's not using his keyblade."

Naminé sighed and used her power to make Goofy's shield look like a keyblade- similar to what she had done before for her lucky charm and erased the last five or so seconds of Marluxia's memory so he wouldn't notice the transition.

Argh, she'd done it again!

When would her chain of lies end?

...

Riku had been having a very strange time. Ansem would not leave him alone and mysterious cloaked people kept showing up to dare him to use the power of darkness. However, what really took the crazy cake was the other him that just had shown up- not to fight this time, but seemingly just to hang out.

"You may be a big wimp scared of his own shadow, but at the very least you're better than these clowns."

Riku hadn't lowered his sword. Was this copy just trying to get him to lower his guard?

"Why should I trust you?"

"Ha, trust? Riku, I know you. You don't trust anyone. Not even yourself." The other him quieted for a moment. "But you do care about your friends."

"What? If you're trying to threaten-"

The other Riku held out his hands in peace. "I'm not. I may not share your weak little attachments but I promise I have no intention of hurting your friends. However," he smirked in such a way that Riku wanted to deck him. Surely he never looked like that, right? "I can give you information."

"I know where they are." Riku argued. They should be back on the islands. That was the deal. Closing the door to darkness would have brought back the islands and there was no reason for his friends not to go home. "You have nothing. Just admit it."

"Wrong."

"Wrong?"

"Sora's in this castle. He's here, looking for you."

"What?!"

"Did you really expect him to just forget you? Gimme a break. He's too much of a goodie giant-shoes and you know it."

"I told him to watch out for Kairi." Riku grit his teeth, inwardly flinching at the memories of how he'd treated his best friend. Sora was someone it was important to protect and yet he'd tried to kill him himself. That was why darkness couldn't be allowed to exist. He still couldn't believe he'd fallen so low.

"From what I understand about your other little friend she probably would have wanted to drag you back as well."

Riku had to concede that point.

"If Sora's really here then where is he?"

The other Riku pointed up and Riku scoffed. Of course.

"If you help me, then I'll help you save your friend."

"I've heard that offer before, thanks." Riku turned away. The other Riku grabbed his arm, clearly not having it.

"I'm not Maleficent," he growled. Riku rolled his eyes and snatched his arm away from the other's grasp. "I just want to get out of here with my heart intact and even if I have to team up with a weakling like you, I'm making it out. And unless you want Sora to turn into nothing but a puppet you'll listen to me."

Riku weighed his options. This copy smelled of darkness. He very clearly wasn't to be trusted and every time Riku had tried to team up with anyone it'd backfired poorly. This was not going to end up well.

However…

"Whatever, fake." Riku said dismissively. "You better talk quick then."

The replica smiled.

* * *

**A/N:** This is crack. Absolute crack. But hey, it was fun to write.

I'm aware that Namine's powers have some rules that I paid as much attention to as any of the games ever do, but I don't think anything's really too out there with her actual powerset that we've seen. And like, at this point she hasn't exactly had time to practice key skills like aiming lol  
Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed this so far :)


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